It’s been pretty much accepted for a while now that Ivan Perisic has played his last match for Tottenham Hotspur and is also likely to return to Croatia when his Spurs contract expires. It looks like that time might happen sooner rather than later. Fabrizio Romano tweeted late yesterday that Perisic could move to Split this month, initially going on loan and then presumably signing with them as a free agent.
EXCLUSIVE: Ivan Perisić comeback to Hajduk Split is advancing well, now at the final stages!
Perisić is keen on returning to make history at the club.
Understand Tottenham are prepared to accept loan move until the end of the summer. pic.twitter.com/MIbrBZkspq
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 18, 2024
OK, so it’s a LITTLE weird. Considering Perisic busted his ACL in August which required surgery, he’s apparently out for the rest of the season. It’s kind of baffling why Split would want to bring him in knowing he can’t play at all until that knee fully heals. There may be some information that we’re not privy to that suggests that Ivan could return to fitness earlier than expected. Or maybe he just wants to head home and putz around the Split training ground on his crutches for a while and feel like a whole person for a while, who knows? But it sure seems like a loan is the plan.
Perisic also makes about £195k/wk in wages right now at Tottenham. Hajduk Split’s top earner right now makes €19k/wk. So something’s gotta give, and that probably means Spurs will heavily subsidize his wages while on loan. I gotta think that’s probably the plan and that Spurs will end up still paying 80-90% of his wages until his contract expires. That’s still better than 100% and he’s not playing anyway, so… sure, I guess.
Anyway, Grampa Ivan is probably leaving Spurs in the short term. I’m a little bummed we never got a good chance to see what he could do in Ange-Ball as the initial results were pretty promising. But home is where the heart is, and who am I to argue against Ivan’s career going full circle?